BioMed Realty Trust Makes $531M Portfolio Acquisition

"This portfolio is an excellent fit," Alan D. Gold, president and chief executive officer of BioMed Realty Trust, said in a Monday conference call announcing the acquisition. "We believe it to be a tremendous asset to our company and our shareholders." He said the portfolio acquisition establishes BioMed as a leading owner of life science office and laboratory space in the Cambridge market, one of the most established and sophisticated biotech markets on the East Coast.

"These first class assets reinforce BioMed's corporate mission to provide real estate to the life science industry and further highlight our premier life science real estate oriented management team," he said, adding that the realty trust may increase its portfolio with additional purchases later this year. Gold expects all eight properties will close in late May.

The properties include approximately 1.1 million sf of laboratory and office space which is currently 96.6% leased to a variety of major Cambridge biotech firms, including Genzyme, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Metabolix and Monsanto. Dartmouth College holds the lease on the New Hampshire property, which is sublet to Centerra Biolabs. The company also acquired a 477-space parking garage in Cambridge as part of the transaction.

The acquisitions, located in one of the premier biotech markets in the nation, brings the number of BioMed's real estate holdings to 31 properties totaling 53 buildings with approximately 4.1 million sf of rentable laboratory and office space. All of those properties are located in major life science markets, Gold said, but the Lyme Timber purchases bring the firm into the nation's strongest biotech market. Some 20% of all life science companies are located in the Boston and Cambridge area.

The Cambridge properties are located at 650 and 675 Kendall St. in Kendall Square, the Fort Washington Research Park at 40 Erie St. and 200 Sidney St., and 270 Albany St., 325 Vassar St. and 21 Erie St. along with a six-story, open air parking garage at 47 Erie St., which provides parking for the Fort Washington Research Park and the 270 Albany St. and 21 Erie St. properties. The New Hampshire acquisition is situated adjacent to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. Gold said all eight properties were purchase at or below replacement costs and would be financed through KeyBank National Association which will provide up to $600 million in financing.